Dungeon Hearts fuses the strategy and pattern matching of puzzle games with the kinetic pace of action games. Align magical runes as they flow along the Fatestream to attack, defend, and conjure magic in frenetic battles against a bestiary of fantastic creatures out to use those same runes against you.

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About This Game

Dungeon Hearts fuses the strategy and pattern matching of puzzle games with the kinetic pace of action games. Align magical runes as they flow along the Fatestream to attack, defend, and conjure magic in frenetic battles against a bestiary of fantastic creatures out to use those same runes against you. Chain together multiple attacks and unleash powerful combos or call upon each hero's special attacks to devastate your enemies to survive the twists and turns of Dungeon Heart's evolving gameplay. Strike down all that stand in your way and level up your brave warriors as each foe grows more powerful than the last, culminating in the final battle with The Dark One himself!

"Four spirits race across the land, burdened with tragedy. Within each lies the specter of guilt and fear, which The Dark One bends to his will to enact his resurrection. They realize the deception too late as the promise of salvation turns to betrayal. A black wind washes over the planes, turning all to ash. As the fallen heroes face the engulfing void, a spark of hope clings to life. When the demon peered into their hearts to learn their secrets, so too did they learn his..."

If I told you that Dungeon Hearts was a match-3 puzzle game, RPG hybrid, would you dismiss it as another Puzzle Quest clone? Well, it is, but you shouldn't, because it isn't. Let me explain...Dungeon Hearts puts you in control of a party of four adventurers who rush headlong from one battle to the next in an unquenchable thirst for glory that doesn't end until they're all dead. As the adventures race in place and the world scrolls past them, monsters appear in a steady stream from the other side of the screen. Defeat one, the next appears, and the battle begins anew.

During battles, which account for about 99% of the gameplay, four lines are drawn horizontally across the screen, each aligned with one of the adventurers. Colored stones scroll along these lines, fate lines as the game calls them, from the right edge of the screen and make their way to the adventurers on the left. Using the mouse you need to drag these stones to place three of them of the same color together either horizontally or vertically. When you do they combine to form a gem that will damage the monster when double-clicked. The gem will also trigger other gems aligned with it either horizontally or vertically to explode, and the more gems in the chain reaction, the more damage is done to the monster. Include gems of different colors in the chain and you'll score even more bonus damage. The gems are also used to trigger the other types of icons that travel down the fate lines. Skulls represent the monster's attacks, and if they're not eliminated before they reach the end of a line they'll damage the adventurer that they hit. Spell and buff icons, for both the party and the monster, are also triggered or destroyed by the gems. If an adventurer dies during a battle, the corresponding colored stones become grayed over and can no longer be used to build gems. This gives you fewer opportunities to make gems, takes away some combos, and puts more obstacles on the fate lines. If you manage to win the battle, the adventurer will be revived for the next. If you lose all four in a battle, then it's game over. Defeat a monster and you'll get to play a fast-paced version of the game in which a tightly packed run of colored stars make their way down the fate lines. Matching three of the same color will level-up the corresponding adventurer, one level per every three stars matched. The game's fantasy theme and level-up bonus levels are the extent of its tie to RPGs, and it's far more of a puzzle game than it is an RPG. The background graphics are colorful and evoke memories of JRPGs of a console generation gone by, but you have to stay so focused on the fast-moving fate lines that you won't really be able to enjoy them. There's no persistence between games, so after your party is all dead you'll begin the next game from the beginning with a group of level one adventurers. And if there was any doubt left about the game's primary nature, at the end of a game you're given a score.

So it's not much of an RPG - no big deal as long as the puzzle part's fun, right? Well, Dungeon Hearts is a fun puzzle game, but also one that's more geared to those with quick reflexes than those who want to carefully setup and execute their gem combos. The game is fast moving and will keep you so focused that you won't be aware that a game can last twenty minutes or more unless you check a clock (luckily, the game will let you pick up where you left off if you need to leave early). My biggest complaint with the game comes from the controls, specifically that the mouse has a tendency to drop a stone as you try to move it around another stone, particular when you 're trying to turn a corner around another stone.

Dungeon Hearts is a fun and challenging puzzle game, but I can see it disappointing gamers looking for more of an RPG element in the game or those who will find that the fate lines move too fast for their tastes. It's certainly the kind of puzzle game you'll come back to now and again. Since it's an indie title and can be had for a relatively low price, it's easy to recommend adding this to your game library.

IF YOU LIKE ARCADE-PUZZLE GAMES WITH HINTS OF RPG MECHANICS BUY THIS GAME

Dungeon Hearts is a high octane puzzle games with a simple premise of matching colors. This concept is dragged in every single possible direction; it steadily develops as the game continues. Three circles make a diamond, which allows one of the 4 color-coded heroes to attack. Three diamonds make a super charged attack that clears the que. Every time a new type of puzzle piece is introduced the game stops to inform you of what it does. The 4 party members have appealing designs with their own set of subtle passive abilities and stylish super techniques. The red knight uses timed mouse clicks to deal damage, they yellow mage manipulates the que and puzzle pieces, the blue wizard uses rapid mouse clicks to heal and protect the other team members, and the green archer uses skill shots akin to M.O.B.A’s to inflict status ailments. A beautiful aspect of this game is the fact that it is packaged with multiple sound-tracks; each carrying their own theme. Dungeon Hearts is the highest quality puzzle game at its very cheap price range. The title is well done and offers plenty of re-play value.

If you're a fan of match 3 games and is looking for a little twist in your usual gameplay, this game might seem appealing to you. It'll probably be fun for the first couple of minutes, while you still think there's more to the game than it seems, but then you'll soon find out that there isn't.

You have 4 heroes on the left side of the screen, and colored runes come scrolling towards them (with each color representing a hero or the enemy). If an enemy rune hits the end of the line, the hero on that line gets damaged. If all your heroes die, it's game over.

At this point you'll think that each level will have something different besides an increasingly rune-cluttered group of lines that scrolls faster and faster, but nope, that's it. And while it's fun for a bit, the lack of variation gradually becomes very boring. There is no story, no interesting quests or goals, just few very "meh" achievements.

To make matters worse, the thing is incredibly buggy, specially on level transitions. Pausing is a dangerous choice as chances are that the game will bug instead of really pausing, leaving you stuck in a weird limbo in which you can't do anything but see your heroes dying, which can be very frustrating if you've been playing for a while. You'll then have to start from 0, and hope not to get caught in a bug again.

The controls are at times a little wobbly, giving the impression that the game was designed for a touch screen and poorly ported to the PC. So at times things won't scroll as they should, and you'll fail to drag runes around, very often leading to death.

If you're looking for a fast and mindlessly repetitive buggy match 3 game, however, you've found it.

It would have been a good game if the quality was important for the developer. Forum are filled with bug reports since the day it came out. Some people can't run the game at all, achievements are not unlockable for a lot of users, graphics / sound is broken ... nearly everything you can think of. Having bugs is inevitable but the lack of communication / support only shows that the developer cares more about creating a sequel (money) than fixing bugs (quality).

It heavily feels like this game is designed for a touch screen and that the PC port was done in a hurry as far as controls are concerned.

If I overlook all the bugs and only focus on the game I would simply say this: it`s extremely repetitive as you only do one fight after another, no "world" / "story" to discover, nothing. It's a mindless loop of fights from start to finish.

Buying it is like rolling dice, it might runs on your system if your lucky enough.

No. Just no. This is nothing but a port of a mobile game. It may work well with a touch screen, but with a mouse it just sucks. The mouse often doesn't respond as you want it to. For instance, you have to drag the runes or whatever around to place them by matching runes. This is sometimes seen as a click. The same goes for when you are trying to click. It sometimes responds as if you are dragging. You are definitely going to run into problems once the game speeds up. Just a mess. Game looked promising and for .74 I thought it was going to be a great bargain. Nope.